bootloader

Make no mistake: the HTC Jetstream is an awesome 10-inch tablet. And it might have a considerable following at this point, if it weren't for the fact that AT&T's insane pricing on the thing. Still, its hardware charms have given it more than a few fans, who will no doubt be happy to hear that it's finally been rooted. ClockworkMod Recovery, the most popular custom recovery for Android at the moment, has been successfully installed. Custom ROMs for the high-end 4G tablet can't be far behind.

Earlier today we reported that HTC's official bootloader unlock program on HTCDev.com had been updated to work with the Evo View 4G and the MyTouch 4G Slide. That's true. A few users have found that the update also works with AT&T's HTC Vivid and Verizon's HTC Rezound, though those models don't appear anywhere on HTCDev's documentation. Now the company has come right out and said it: all devices released after September of 2011 are unlockable using the official method.

HTC won some major brownie point with the modder community when it released an official bootloader unlock tool this fall, though the selection of phones that could be unlocked was a bit small. Today the available devices expand by two, with the addition of T-Mobile's MyTouch 4G Slide and the Flyer's mobile broadband variant, the Evo View 4G. It's still a pretty small selection against HTC's entire lineup, but the more options, the better.

It appears that HTC is staying true to their word completely because they've continuously been adding phones and tablets to the ever growing list of supported devices at HTCdev.com for boot loader unlocking. We now have a few more popular devices that made the list, although they've been unlocked by the community for a while already.

One of the biggest reasons many Android fans bought the NOOK Tablet aside from the great hardware and eReader capabilities is the fact that we can side-load apps, root, and install 3rd party ROM's -- not to mention eventually stable Ice Cream Sandwich builds. An update that started rolling out yesterday has killed root access, and we no longer have the easy option to side-load Android apps without some serious modification and hacking. Don't worry our fellow readers, we have a fix.

Now that many of us have a shiny new Galaxy Nexus in our hands, I'm sure many of our readers are looking for a few tips and guides. With this being a Nexus device this will be one of the easiest phones to unlock, root, and fully enjoy but we have all the details round up just in case. Below you'll find a few links to XDA, Google+ and more.

Google TV has seen better days. After an exciting start, the HTPC platform has been largely ignored by mainstream consumers, and the two hardware launch partners remain the only makers of Google TV devices to date. Logitech's Google TV users remain a small but dedicated lot, and they're growing increasingly frustrated over a lack of support and late updates. In order to have full access to the Revue hardware, a group of owners have petitioned the company to unlock the boootloader, in order to easily and effectively create custom ROMs and other mods.

Barnes & Noble's latest device, the updated Nook Tablet, has done pretty well in the weeks since its release. Nowhere near as well as that other 7-inch tablet/reader, but certainly enough to build upon the success of the Nook Color. But one group of customers isn't happy with some of the updates: power users. A restriction on the Nook Tablet's 16GB internal storage and a locked bootloader has many lamenting their $250 purchase.

In cased you've somehow missed it, we are live at the NYC Motorola event where they've just announced the new DROID RAZR. You can see the official announcement here, and our hands-on pictures and videos by clicking here. Sadly we can now confirm that the Motorola DROID RAZR will indeed have a locked bootloader.

Just like a few other HTC devices in the recent past the HTC Flyer tablet has been added to the list of supported devices from HTC that is allowed freedom. We all know the HTC bootloader situation plenty well so I wont go into that, but it's now appearing over at HTCdev.com/bootloader in pretty much every version.